Hotel rate sheet: seasonal prices, supplements and reductions in one table

A hotel rate sheet is one table that sets, for each season, the base price of each room and board combination with its basis (per person or per room, per night or per stay), plus every supplement and reduction that can change it, in a stated currency, under a version number.

Two contracts, one website and one channel manager, and the same three-night stay comes out at three different totals. The cause is rarely the pricing decision. It is the sheet the prices were copied from. After reading this you will be able to build, or repair, one sheet that every contract, booking site and the hotel's own website can be loaded from without contradictions.

What belongs on a hotel rate sheet?#

A rate sheet holds every element that can change the price of a stay, in one table, so that a contract, a website and a channel can all be loaded from the same document.

Season periods come first, each with an explicit first night and last night, not a month name. Then the base price for each room type and board type, with its basis written next to it: per person per night, per room per night, or per stay. Then the supplements, such as board upgrade, view or floor, single use of a double room, and extra bed. Then the reductions: third adult sharing, children by age band, infants.

Around the prices sit the terms that travel with the sheet: currency, whether prices include taxes, the commission basis, the validity window and a version number. The readers are contracting, reservations, the website, the channel manager, travel agencies and the front desk. Each one applies the sheet differently, which is why ambiguity costs money.

The test of a good sheet: two people who have never spoken to each other should price the same stay identically from it.

How do you set season periods and their boundaries?#

Set boundaries on the dates the market actually moves on, and write each period as a first night and a last night so that no one has to interpret a month name.

Define whether a period's price applies to the arrival date or to each night of the stay. A stay that crosses a boundary must have one written rule: split by night, or price the whole stay at the arrival-date rate. Pick one and never change it mid-season.

Religious holidays move every year, so the calendar, not the month, sets the period. The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) 2027 official holidays list, prepared under Law No. 2429, gives Ramazan Bayramı as a half-day eve on Monday 8 March plus three days, Tuesday 9 to Thursday 11 March 2027 (Diyanet, 2027 official holidays list (opens in a new tab)). The same list gives Kurban Bayramı as a half-day eve on Saturday 15 May plus four days, Sunday 16 to Wednesday 19 May 2027, and 19 May is also Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day. Two holidays sit inside one another, so a sheet that opens a separate period for each will contradict itself on 19 May.

School holiday dates differ by province and change by year. State which source you used and the date you checked it, on the sheet itself. Give events such as local festivals, fairs and sports fixtures their own short period with a start and an end, never the phrase subject to availability.

Decide what happens to a gap night between two periods. A single unpriced night between two seasons is a hole a channel will fill with the wrong rate. And do not build a period on an administrative leave or bridge day that has not been officially announced. If it is announced later, issue a new version of the sheet.

Per person or per room: which base should the sheet use?#

Use the base the hotel actually sells on, write it on every line, and state the conversion rule for everything else.

Per person per night suits resorts that sell board, because the meal cost moves with the number of guests. Per room per night suits city hotels and room-only sales, where the room is the unit being sold. If the base is per person, the room price is derived, not stored: two adults in a double is two times the per-person rate, and single use is one per-person rate plus a single supplement.

Write the conversion rule into the sheet. A rule that lives in one manager's head disappears when that manager leaves, and the next person prices the same room differently. All-inclusive prices bundle room and board into one figure; if accounting, an agency net rate or a report needs the two separated, state the split method on the sheet rather than inventing one per request. Separating room and board revenue in all-inclusive hotels has its own method, which we cover in how ADR works when room and board are one price.

Choose the rounding step once: per person per night, per room per night, or the stay total. Rounding at different steps produces totals that differ by small amounts, and small differences are what rate-parity checks flag. Run the consistency check: any two channels quoting the same stay, for the same room and board, should produce the same total. If they do not, the base or the rounding step has drifted.

Which supplements does the sheet need, and how should each one be written?#

Every supplement needs four things: a name, an amount, a basis, and the guests it applies to. Anything less and two readers will apply it differently.

The board supplement is the step from one board type to another, per person per night, with a separate line saying whether children pay the same amount or a reduced one. A view or room-type supplement is usually per room per night, and it must say whether it is waived for a named market, a contract or a long stay. Single use is the amount added when one person occupies a double: state whether it is a fixed amount or a percentage, and if a percentage, of exactly what.

The extra bed is charged per night, and it must say who the bed is for. A child can trigger both a child reduction and an extra bed charge, so the sheet must state which one wins. Fix the order of application as well: base price, then board, then view, then extra bed, then reductions. Percentages applied in a different order give a different total, so the order belongs on the sheet.

Do not copy supplement amounts from another hotel or from an old contract. The hotel's own cost structure and its market decide the amount, and the sheet only records the decision.

How should reductions work for a third adult and for children?#

Treat every reduction as a price, not as a discount: write what the guest pays and what they get, and the ambiguity disappears.

For a third adult sharing a double, decide whether the third adult pays a reduced per-person rate or the full rate plus an extra bed charge. Both are workable; carrying both without a rule is not. For children, define the bands on the sheet (for example 0 to 2, 3 to 6, 7 to 12), and for each band state the amount or percentage, whether a bed is included, and whether meals are included.

Fix the age reference point: age at arrival or age during the stay. A child who has a birthday mid-stay will otherwise be priced two ways by two people. State the maximum occupancy of each room type and what happens beyond it. A reduction that quietly allows a fifth person into a room breaks the fire capacity and the housekeeping plan.

An infant who stays free still uses a cot, a meal and housekeeping time. Say so on the sheet so that the cost is visible even when the price is zero. State whether agency commission is calculated before or after the reduction: the two orders give the agency a different net, and the difference appears in the reconciliation, not in the contract. Keep the full child policy in one place and let the sheet refer to it, rather than repeating half of it in each contract annex.

Which currency should the rate sheet use, and how do you control versions?#

Price in the currency the contract will be settled in, state that currency on every line, and give every issue of the sheet a number and a date.

The contract currency is a regulatory question, not a marketing one. Under Communiqué No. 2008-32/34 on Decision No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of the Turkish Currency, residents of Türkiye may not set the price of service contracts between themselves in foreign currency or indexed to it, except in listed cases (Ministry of Treasury and Finance, FAQ on Decision No. 32, items 4 and 34 (opens in a new tab)). Those listed cases include accommodation service contracts at facilities certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, added by an amendment published on 30 January 2021 (Communiqué No. 2021-32/59), and the Ministry's FAQ says that since that date hotel rooms may be let for accommodation in foreign currency or indexed to it.

Advertised prices are a separate rule. Advertised prices follow a separate consumer-protection rule, and counsel should confirm how it applies to the hotel's own website and channels. A hotel can therefore have a contract in one currency and an advertised price under another rule, and the two must not contradict each other on the website. State both rules on the sheet in general terms and have counsel confirm how each applies to the hotel's own contracts, website, agencies and booking channels. The sheet records the decision; it does not make it.

Version control is simpler: a number, an issue date, a validity window and a one-line change note. A superseded version is withdrawn, never edited in place, because a channel that reloads an edited file cannot tell what changed. On tax, state whether prices include value added tax and the accommodation tax, and leave the applicable rates and any conversion rules to the hotel's accountant.

How do you load one sheet into contracts and channels without contradictions?#

Load from the sheet, not from memory: one owner, one version, and a hand-priced test before anything goes live.

Map room types and board types once, and use the same names in the sheet, the contract and the channel manager. A room type called one thing in the contract and another in the channel is a mapping error waiting to happen; the mapping method is covered in channel manager mapping for room types and rate plans. The sheet's season dates and supplements become the annex to the accommodation contract. Release periods, allotments and cancellation clauses are a separate document, covered in allotment contracts and the clauses to check, and should be checked separately.

Rate restrictions such as minimum stay, closed to arrival and closed to departure sit on top of the sheet, not inside it. Keep the two layers apart so a restriction change does not require a new price version; see rate restrictions and how they work.

Build a small set of test stays: two adults for three nights, two adults with one child, a single occupant of a double, and one stay that crosses a season boundary. Price each one by hand from the sheet. Compare the hand-priced totals with what the website, the channel manager and each agency portal actually quote. Any difference is either a mapping error, a rounding step, or a supplement applied in the wrong order.

Keep a change log with the version number, the date and who approved it. When a guest or an agency disputes a price, the log answers the question in one line.

What to do next#

Take the sheet the hotel uses today and add three things: a basis column on every line, season periods written as first and last night, and a version number with an issue date. Then hand-price the four test stays and compare them with what each channel quotes. That one afternoon of checking is what keeps the next contract round, the website and the agencies quoting the same number for the same stay.